Hot Pink Hearts

So pretty! Customized pink paper heart art from Etsy seller sarahandbendrix, $211. (via the style files)

Leaf Alphabet

Here is a good idea from Martha Stewart, pressing leaves and making alphabet cards. They'll be brittle, so they won't last forever, but maybe the tip about rubbing a clean sheet of paper over the leaves while gluing will help them stick better.

Morality Puzzle

Six moral sentences beginning with the letter T. Lithograph by Currier & Ives, 1875. This took me a long time to figure out, but I think I've got it. I'll post what I think the answers are in the comments. (via Happy Go Lovely)

French Rabbit Doll

So cute! This Parisian rabbit doll kit that you can sew yourself is $18 from mikodesign on Etsy. (via Bloesem Kids)

Green Cord Dress

That's a pretty green cord dress, $54 at Lucky Wang.

Crazy Bunny Dress

This crazy bunny dress is just crazy, in a good way. And the back shows the bunny backs. 119 Euros at nobodinoz, in Spain I think.

Cat Scarf

Cute kid cat scarves from Yohi & Olivia.

Lemon Tree Playroom

Jen Talbot created a lemon tree playroom for a client in Brooklyn. Look at all that felty crafty woodland goodness. (via Kireei)

Chevron Wood Floors

I want floors like this please. (via DecoPeques)

Superfun Deathtrap

It is really cool though. (via DecoPeques)

Cute Swedish Twin Beds

Cute Swedish twin beds. So nice. (via desire to inspire)

Gorgeous Gorgeous Food

Oh wow, what a yummy fruit and vegetable table, and so pretty! See more photos here and read about the menu and creative process here. Note to self: the watermelon cubes are stuffed with apples and grapes and topped with a yogurt dressing. Yum. (via Ohdeedoh)

Things Natalie Said, Thanksgiving Edition

I don't think I've ever posted anything personal before, but it has been a rough month, and I'm just so grateful for my little Nugget. Here she is dressed as Your Majesty for Halloween. She is the best. All the U-turns in my life led up to her. How did I get so lucky?

Mama: "I've never loved ANYTHING as much as I love you!"
Natalie: "What about jokes? I LOVE a joke about tickling!"

Natalie: "What next!..."

"Don't EVER plant bagels. She's not a flower."

"A big cherry robot! I want to make it. I don't have any structions!"

(dancing)

"This is The Shaking Booty Show!"

"I had a dream about the prince giving my shoe back. I was not Cinderella. I was just Natalie."

"I had a dream about girls and trucks. It was very full. And a small hill. And circles of chocolate."

"Mama, I was a baby in your belly and you pushed me out, and now I'm here in my sweet home. You pushed me out in your belly button. Not in your mouth. Food goes in your mouth."

"Too many faces. I had a dream. You had two heads, a man head and a mama head. The bad man head talked. He said there is no mama here. You had toilet paper like this [wrapped around head like a mummy]. We rescued you. Papa and Natalie. Like this [tearing off toilet paper]. Papa was not brave. I rescued you. From the back, not the front. We picked you up."

(with both arms in one sleeve)

"My hands are stuck. I can't do anything: take a shower, wash my hands, rescue someone, pick this up, close the door, eat on a plate, look in a telescope. Can you help me?"

(talking to doll)

"Cinderella, I saw your movie, and I love you very much."

"Mama, you married a papa, and I'll marry a prince."

Natalie: "I had a dream. Papa and me. I didn't have you. And Papa picked me up [on his shoulders]. I didn't touch anything."

Mama: "Where were you? Inside or outside?"

Natalie: "Inside. In a store."

Mama: "What kind of store?"

Natalie: "A don't-touch-anything store."

Mama: "Do you know how much I love you?!"

Natalie: "ALL much!"

"How I'm gonna find a prince to marry? I have to do it quickly before the other girls get him."

"Do squirrels have butts, Mommy? Do they go poop and fart and pee?"

(windshield wipers on birthday camping trip)

"Why is the window wet? Because we're in the rain forest?"

"My nice Mama!" (with a big hug)

"Let's make a mozzarella cake! And use MY RECIPE. You need mozzarella and a recipe: Mozzarellipe!"

"Papa's home! I remember HIM!"

Natalie: "Mama, you're the greatest."

Mama: "YOU'RE the greatest!"

Natalie: "Yeah. You are too."

Natalie: "I did it! I did it! I pushed out a poop!"

Mama: "Oh, it's just a little one."

Natalie: "Last time you were proud of me for just a little one."

Mama: "Don't put the carrots by the photo album. You'll get it all wet."

Natalie: "Yes, Your Majesty." (bowing)

Papa: "Do you hear the birds? They're cheering you. They're saying, 'Good job eating, Natalie!'"

Natalie: "No they're saying, 'You need a puppy and a doggy, Natalie.'"

"I want to be ME, Mama! I just want to be ME when I grow up."

(looking at photos)

"Look! Jacopo is giving me a baccino!" [big kiss]

Mama: "You're so smart! You can read the clock! You can count! You can do math! You can add! I'm so proud of you!"

Natalie: "And I can make silly mouths for babies with sad faces. I can go daddledaddledaddledah and make them laugh!"

"Only teachers hate goats." (Mary Had a Little Lamb)

Mama: "Do you like your Lego? Aren't we nice parents?"

Natalie: "Yeah. Berto was bad. He was trying to get us. We need to help him. We need to make him happy."

"I want five families. Brothers and sisters to look at me like a big sister. To play with my toys. I wish for that. I wish for Papa to marry some mamas."

"You think harder with your eyes closed. It helps your imagination come out."

"Mama, do cats poop? What from? From their butts? Where is their butts?"

"I want a park in front of my house. With binoculars. You need to move it."

"My imagination will throw me! My big magic hands will fix the world! With tape!"

"I love you very much. You tell me a lot of stories, Mama. Thanks for you."

(jumping on bed and bonking head)

"I'm not dead. I'm OK."

"Remember we didn't eat egg sandwiches yesterday? Can you make them for me? I'm not a good cooker in the kitchen. I'm only a little guy."

"Mom, I want you to save the world. You need to save the world so I can be proud of you. We need a lot of people to save the world."

"Mom! I can make money for you! To help Bugs Bunny! Remember, I saw it yesterday? Now I need to help you get more money!"

Mama: "It is very hard to make a baby. We don't know if it will work."

Natalie: "You just shoot it out of your butt, then you wash it, then you take the temperature, then you measure it, then you put on a bracelet. Remember?"

(talking to self while writing an angry letter)

"Dear Mom, you are very funny. Sorry I hate you because I want to watch a movie. I love you. I'm going to give you a big bear hug so you can be happy. To Natalie: Would you like a puppy? Or a kitty? Or a doggy? When I grow up to be a human, I'm going to cook by myself!"

Natalie: "I miss my Chicken. Not the dinner, the cat."

Mama: "How do you know about chicken dinners?"

Natalie: "It's only bad people who want to peel the animals."

Mama: "Do you like the Brussels sprouts you helped me cook? They're so delicious. We can bring them to Oma, and she'll say, 'Thanks! They're so yummy!'"

Natalie: "No, her DOGGIES will say they're so yummy."

Natalie: "Mama, you're the best cook in the whole world!"

Mama: "The best cook?"

Natalie: "Yeah, I'm pretending to be someone else."

(doing a puzzle)

"Are anyone helping me? I'm having trouble, people. Guys? Why are you laughing, guys?"

(laughing while sleeping)

"I dreamed about a boy. He was eating a seed. There were puppets. He was eating a nut, talking about Santa. He was going to find the bad Santa. It was really funny."

Natalie: "I wish I could fly like a fairy."

Mama: "People can fly in a hang glider."

Natalie: "That's right! That's right! That's how people can fly! A hang glider! Good job thinking, Mom!"

(the night before leaving for Italy without Mama)

"Who is going to take good care of you?! Here, take my bear! He will take good care of you!"

"I'm going to miss you. A lot. Don't worry. I'm going to find a new mama. I will be with Jacopo's mama. I will be part of that family for a little bit. And then I will come back and be your family again."

I wrote her name and airline on her arm and told her if she couldn't find Papa to go into a store and find a lady and show her the words on her arm, and we kept practicing. So at the airport, on our last hug, I asked her again, and she said, "I find a lady and show her the words on my arm that says I don't want a new family. I already have a family." And then they went through security and Natalie was blowing kisses, and when they were far away, she shouted, "I LOVE YOU!" and about 100 people laughed and I started balling.

(on the phone)

Mama: "Do you want me to bring you flowers when I see you at the airport?"

Natalie: "Yeah. Cut flowers, and food, and a fruit basket, and...more food."

And now she is home, and we're snowed in, nice and cozy. Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Vitamin D

After reading this article in Science News about the utility of vitamin D, I decided that maybe our annual sunburn in Hawaii isn't going to suffice for sunlight for the entire year. So I picked up these drops at Whole Foods, though I see now they are cheaper at amazon.com. My Squigglepants LOVES taking them and watching the little drop slide out. My only concern is that it doesn't have a child-proof cap, and she may decide to self-medicate (but usually I hear the dragging and clunky stacking of her furniture-tower-ladder before she gets too close to the top shelf). In fact, she likes them so much that I use the drops to bribe her to eat her chewable vitamin, Rainbow Light's Kids' One, which I think tastes good--like Smarties (but we found out this Halloween that she doesn't like Smarties either). I chose the Kid's One vitamin because the ingredients sounded better than a lot of other kid vitamins (like no gelatin--ground up bones--for us vegetarians), and I imagined that the even the vegetarian gummy vitamins would be worse for the teeth. And more about vitamin D: I read that you need D3 not D2, and I read that you need to take vitamin D for many months to get your levels to recover. That concludes my very scientific research, so you're better off just researching it yourself.

P.S. D2 is from plants and doesn't last as long and D3 is from sheep wool. Read this.

Chain Link Scarf

Isn't this a cute design for a girl's scarf? It is a continuous loop of chain link so it won't slide off in the playground. Too bad it is acrylic though. But I'm still hesitant to put a scarf on my Little Bunny. That is how Isadora Duncan, the founder of modern dance, died you know. But her scarf had to be much, much longer than this, I'm sure.

Girl's Room

What a perfect bedroom Jeanette Lunde of FRYDE + DESIGN created for her daughter Alma!

Swedish Cottage

Is this the cutest house you've ever seen? Can I relive my childhood here? Or maybe I'll start building it for my daughter right now. How hard can it be? (via Aesthetic Outburst)